Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master

“Has a lot of been credible information? Or just gossip being stirred around?”

“It’s gossip. Is it ever actually credible?”

Theo watched her with the same feeling of wonder he had when he first me her all that time ago. He could only seem to fall deeper in love with her and that offered him a happiness that words could not contain. He touched his forehead, feeling the paint, he shrugged. “I recanted the Lion King opening scene earlier, I was Simba. It was Oscar worthy.”He joked, knowing he’d need a bath later. “Yeah, that sounds good.” He nodded, as he looked over at her with the thought still in the back of his mind. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something, but I can ask later–it’s not important. But don’t forget to ask for extra ragoons, that is important.”

At his mention of recreating the Lion King she couldn’t help but smile more, knowing what a load of bullshit it was but it was fun. Maybe because they had watched that movie together recently. “I wish I could have seen it, you know I do an excellent Rafiki.” Total bs from her to match his, and she loved it “Though as far as I recall Simba didn’t have a deadbeat dad, only a deadbeat uncle.” She continued, setting her cup down on the counter. “Do I ever forget extra rangoons?” Andrea pulled out her cell phone, searching for the number. When Theo had mentioned wanting to ask her about something she could feel her heart drop to her stomach. No, it was ridiculous, she had no reason to be worried, nothing even remotely bad had happened, well, for sure. There was no way Theo could know about the talk of the institute at her work, and that was all speculation. But then what could he be asking about? By the look on his face it had been weighing on his mind for a while now. “Sure sweetie, whenever you want.”

“That’s probably for the best. It’s not even the scaling that’s hard, it’s the deboning. Miss one, and your both is cut up for days.” Damon shuddered, remembering vividly from his own experience. He finished up with one of the rods, handing it to Andrea before sitting down in his own chair to prepare the last one. Damon cast off his line, gripping the rod loosely as he waited. “I’ll take this over that any day.”

“Any tips then so I won’t be the talk of the town?”

“No, I think you’re be it eventually, we all are. Just hope it’s not something credible.”

Damon brought out the last of the equipment, setting it up and making sure the fishing rods were ready to go. “Sometimes it’s not about what you catch. I’m going to end up releasing it anyways. Today is just about relaxing and getting away from the civilization of town.” Not that town was ever really busy, it was nice to hear just the sounds of nature. “Are you hoping to catch stuff and take it back to Theo?”

Snorting, Andrea shook her head “No, I don’t think he’d be willing to scale a fish. I think we’ll just be sticking to preprepared fish for the time being.” Settling into her chair, when Damon handed her a rod she cast it off, watching the bobber float along, gently moving in the soft waves. “This is much more peaceful than last time.”

Aaron shook his head, chuckling. “Not really. This is my first time out on the town, so to speak. I’ve been unpacking since I got here.”

“You’d find out soon enough anyways.” Andrea snorted as if what she had said was super obvious.

“I love hiking, but a nice long break from it is just what the doctor ordered.” Damon got out of his truck, grabbing the gear from the bed and setting up close to the edge of the water. “I haven’t been any time recently, since the move. It’ll make for a nice relaxing day.”

“I’d much rather be sitting anyways.” Andrea got out of the truck as well, helping him set up, feeling much calmer than last time they were alone in the woods. Plus this time she had triple checked to make sure her phone was fully charged so it wouldn’t suddenly die on her again. “It’s a nice change of pace. I don’t even know what will all be out this time of hear but I’m sure we’ll have a good time.”

“No one talks? I thought everyone was supposed to be all up in each others’ business.”

“Not like that, more like, that’s not the type of information that spreads. Of course people in small towns are all up in each other’s business, have you met literally anyone in this town?”

Damon pulled his truck up near the edge of the lake, chuckling to himself. “See no hiking this time, as promised.” After the last time they had been near the woods, he didn’t want either of them to have to repeat that scenario. “Have you been fishing in awhile?”

@acodexhaddock

“Thank you for the no hiking, after last time I’m set for the rest of my life.” Andrea laughed, looking out at the calm waters of the lake, happy that she and Damon are doing this. “It’s been a long while, when I was growing up my family and I went fishing on lake Michigan pretty often.”

Aaron looked at her in confusion, “There is? It’s a small town, it has room to hide big shit?”

“Every town does, you’d be surprised. I feel like in small towns it’s just buried deeper. In big cities there’s always someone willing to talk. Here, not so much.”

“Not quite the stone age, but there’s not too many places around here that look sophisticated enough to care about that sort of high tech security.”

Andrea shrugged a bit “You’d be surprised. There’s some surprisingly big shit hiding here in town.”

Hearing his wife greet their dog left a smile on his face. It was the first time in his life he felt he had a family, one that truly mattered to him. He knew despite the scares going on lately that they were making a home there. They were preparing for the future, he had a good job and she had only just landed one. They were pet parents, but within the next few years they could have a child of their own to worry about. It was a future he had always ached for and he could not wait for it to be true. He leaned into her kiss and chuckled. “Yeah, figured I’d give that old dresser I’ve had in there some new life, working on adding a few side tables to go with it.” He had finished painting the dresser earlier, but he never was good at washing it off at the time–now, he’d be picking at them for a while. He turns off the hot, switching it to cold so  she could get water while he dryed his hands. “We’ve got a kitchen now, a full one, be a shame not to use it.” he laughed as he rubbed the towel over his hands. “We’ve had a good few weeks, figured we could eat out. Change it up.” He shrugged, in truth not feeling up for cooking. He was tried and something unhealthy sounded great.” Want to call our favorite Thai place?”

Something about seeing Theo doing something so mundane, so normal made her heart feel strangely full. This wasn’t the life she ever expected to have but she’ll be damned if it wasn’t what she needed. Filling her cup when he left the sink she smiled up at him, looking at him with what she could almost be admiration. Andrea took a sip of her water, leaning against the counter, looking up at him “You know you’ve got paint on your forehead, babe?” Andrea laughed a little before getting up, pulling out her phone. “Yeah, I love the sound of that. You want your regular?”

Theo had been going all day, using it as a way to escape his own fear that seemed to constantly be in the back of his mind. He went to the store, got things they needed and things he used for work. He walked Winston and gave him a bath. It was not even five yet and he felt he’d been going all day. He was in the kitchen, cleaning himself up from working on a piece he would take to the shop to try to sell in the morning. He was scrubbing the paint off his hands when he heard the door open, his smile growing as he heard Andy call out for him. “Kitchen!” he called out to her. He had been putting off talking about a few things with her, mostly because he knew the truth. He knew his wife was faithful despite the gossip blog. But he did wonder what the relationship she had with this Damon character was. He didn’t exactly trust him based on what he’d heard, but that was no his business. Still, he needed to ask and eventually he would. “How do you feel about ordering in? Hadn’t done that in a while.” He called to her as he worked at his stained hands, not looking up.

Andrea almost had a little sigh of relief upon hearing her husband, Winston coming to the door to greet her as he always did. “Did your daddy give you a bath today?” It was weird, Andrea never used a baby voice, she never had until they had gotten Winston, but how could you not with such a cute puppy? She could smell that he was definitely cleaner, not that it was too hard with how big he was getting. Planting a kiss on Winston’s forehead, Andrea walked further inside and upon seeing her husband she felt, I don’t know, a sense of relief? Maybe there was just some secondhand paranoia from the events going on in town, and whispers at her work that she didn’t find too pleasant. Setting her purse down on the counter, Andrea walked over to him and stood on her tiptoes, planting a kiss on his cheek. “Doing some woodworking again?” She asked, noticing the paint on his hands as she reached for a glass from the cupboard. When he asked what she thought about ordering in, she leaned against the counter, waiting for him to let her get to the sink “I think that sounds great. I don’t think we’ve ordered in since since we first moved in.”

At least she seemed to be annoyed with him as much as he was with her. “They have one of those around here?”

“You say that as if no businesses or hoes in town would use something of those sorts. We don’t all live in the stone ages, it’s the 21st century.” 

“I’m right about a lot of things, I’m sure you’ll come to find out.” Henley gave a short smirking grin as he watched the other woman seemingly grow a bit more comfortable around him. Taking her hand into his, the grin only spread wider. “Henley. And it’s a pleasure. I suppose that means we’re not just total stranger anymore, caught together on a night. We might actually have to talk to each other if we see each other around town.”

She caught the change in his expression no problem, not too happy about that. It didn’t matter though, it’s not like she was actually smiling but she did take a note of it. That dropped her trust of him about 10 percent. “Lord help me if that happens.” Despite her harsh expression her tone was light, almost joking at those words, not wanting to be too off-putting. Maybe he could be useful.

“You sure know a lot about serial killers. It’s an expression, you could probably look that up too.” He fully intended on not upsetting people, but honestly, she was a hard one to not feel annoyed towards. “So what do you do?”

Rolling her eyes, ignoring his comment. If he wasn’t annoyed at her she was certainly annoyed at him, or maybe it was just her usual unfriendly manner. “I work for a security company.”